Adventures in DinoLand
by innerdialogue
Summary: Kyle and the other Animorphs have been thrown back in time after a nuclear accident. Now they have to find a way to survive a time and place where Visser Three and the Yeerks aren't the biggest and baddest things stalking them.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This story is based on In the Time of the Dinosaurs by K.A. Applegate. This story pulls a lot from it, but it's mostly dialogue. It's from the viewpoint of Kyle, my character based on the main character from the first Alternamorph series. I have to use [ ] for thought-speak since doesn't seem to like the .

I don't own the Animorphs, but I'm borrowing them for a little bit to have some fun.

**Chapter One:**

After what could have been anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours I awoke floating on the surface of the water. I squinted in the sunlight and took a deep breath through my blowhole.

Blowhole?

I panicked! I was still a dolphin! How long had I been in morph? Was I stuck? A _nothlit_ like Tobias?

_Morph!_ I screamed in my head, fighting to picture myself as human. _Focus! Morph! Do it!_

After a couple agonizingly slow seconds the changes began. My flippers melted into hands and feet, sprouting ten pink finger and ten pink toes. My tail shrank and split into separate legs, and my arms grew from my round dolphin torso. The gray rubbery flesh retreated as my beak-like mouth shrank into my face.

I treaded water, kicking my now human arms and legs to keep afloat. The sea was calmer than it had been, even before the explosion. The sky above was crisp and blue. There wasn't any sign of the thunderstorm that had been raging that night. Weird.

Where were the others? Were they okay? Had the explosion thrown my unconscious dolphin body far away from the group? Were they wondering where I was?

I wouldn't find them floating around as a human. I needed to morph again, but this time something other than a dolphin. My close brush with eternity as a cetacean had sort of spoiled the morph for me, at least for awhile.

Focusing on another creature I began to change. My head flattened like a ball of Play-Dough being squished by a giant fist. It stretched out on both sides of my face, creating an alien, hammer shape. My flat, human teeth sharpened and multiplied, filling my now crescent-shaped mouth.

My calcium-based skeleton melted, lightened and became cartilaginous. The bones in my arms disappeared, and my hands were drawn to my chest. The fingers stretched out before melting together into fins. My legs stretched out beneath me, fusing together. I stretched longer and longer. Five feet, ten, twenty!

I took a deep breath and plunged underwater. Like wounds from a giant cat gills split open on both sides of my neck. Inside, my organs liquefied and reformed.

I was prepared for the hammerhead's instincts. They were strong—most predator instincts were, but I knew what was coming. The shark mind was focused solely on one thing: prey. It lived for prey, breathed for prey. Nothing else mattered for the shark than where it would find its next meal.

Knowing this I shoved the shark's instincts to the side and firmly held my control over the body. I would use the shark's amazing senses to find the others. I had a killer sense of smell at my disposal as well as the shark's special lateral line system. This special organ can detect even the faintest movement of other organisms in the water. The tiny electronic pulses created by moving muscles were picked up by sensors along my face and down my back, giving the hammerhead and other sharks a sort of radar. It was very useful.

Kicking my powerful tail I swam just below the surface, sweeping my flat head from side to side.

[Hello?] I called. [Anybody?]

No one answered. I kept swimming, listening, smelling, and sensing for any sign of the others. They had to be somewhere nearby.

Suddenly, I got a small taste of something in the water. The shark within me perked up, knowing the smell. I knew it, too. The tangy, metallic smell.

Blood.

[Hey!] I yelled in thought-speak. [You guys! Are you close? Is someone hurt?]

I followed the scent trail of blood, concentrating to keep the shark from taking control.

Ahead, I sensed two forms similar in size to me floating in the water. Dolphins.

[Oh, man,] one of the dolphins said. [A shark. Just what we need.]

[Marco!] I called, swimming a little faster. [Rachel! Where are the others?]

[We were just about to dive down to see if we could see them against the sun,] Marco explained.

[No need,] I said. [Someone's hurt. I can smell it in the water. I can lead us straight to them.]

We swam together toward the surface. I could smell the source of the blood getting stronger.

[There!] Rachel exclaimed. Four oval shapes were floating on the surface. Around one of them, blood plumed into the water.

[Go wake them up,] I said, swimming in circles. [I'll stay down here so I don't try to eat anyone. I'm having to fight the shark.]

Rachel and Marco shot toward the surface. Rachel bumped into one of them with her nose.

[Hey! What? What?] Tobias awoke with a start, thrashing in the water. [Jeez! You scared me to death. Good grief, I thought you were one of those lousy wildcats.]

[Tobias, only _you_ would wake up suddenly and worry about wildcats,] Marco goaded.

[Try sleeping in a tree in the woods. You'd worry about them, too.]

The others were roused in turn. Jake and Ax came around with no problems. Cassie woke up wailing.

[Ahhh! Ahhh!] she screamed, thrashing about in the water. Something must have ruptured when the shockwave hit us. [Oh, oh, it hurts!]

[Demorph!] Jake yelled.

[Cassie, hurry!] I pled, still fighting to control my hunger.

[Trying…trying…, oh, oh!] She demorphed slowly, trading her broken dolphin body for a whole, complete girl. The blood dissipated, swept away by the current and I was able to gain complete control again. Cassie floundered in the water as she finished, and the others rose up to support her, keeping her above the water.

She must have asked something, because Jake answered, [Of course.]

Again, something I couldn't hear.

[Can't be a dream,] Marco said. [There's not a single _Baywatch_ girl around. Carmen is always there when I dream.]

[You guys, what's going on?] I asked from below.

[Cassie wonders if this is a dream,] Jake explained. [Cassie, it's not a dream.]

Suddenly everyone was silent. Maybe this morph hadn't been a good idea. I was forced to stay underwater where I couldn't hear anything but thought-speak.

Without warning all four dolphins dove underwater leaving Cassie to bob on the surface. I kicked my tail and rose up beneath her. [Sorry if I scratch you. What's going on?]

I got my answer as four large shapes landed clumsily in the water. [There's a volcano over there! There's an actual volcano! We don't have a volcano. I would have noticed that.]

[A what?] I exclaimed .

[That was a definite volcano,] Tobias agreed.

[Is it some weird effect from the explosion?] Jake asked. [Like maybe setting off that bomb in the fissure caused some kind of eruption?]

[That's impossible,] I said as I heard Cassie's muffled word through the water. [Volcanoes aren't like zits; they don't just pop up.]

[He's right,] Rachel said. [Something is way wrong here. Volcanoes don't just suddenly erupt. Besides, look how high that thing was. That takes hundreds of years of lava and ash building up.]

[How do you know anything about volcanoes?] Jake snapped. Did we do volcanoes in school?]

I tuned them out as they argued. Something else had peaked my interest, something more imminent than a misplaced volcano. [Uh…guys?]

Something was coming. Two somethings, actually, each big enough to send my senses into overdrive.

[Guys, there's something in the water! Something big.]

[I agree,] Ax said politely. [Something very large is coming toward us. A pair of creatures of some sort. I just echolocated them.]

[A pair of whales,] Rachel sniffed. [I saw them earlier. I think we need to haul back to land and see what—]

[Not whales,] Ax said.

[He's right,] I added. [Their scent…it's all wrong for a whale. I don't recognize it. The shark doesn't even recognize it.]

I didn't want to mention that the shark was also anxious. Sharks are never anxious. They're never anything but hungry. If it was feeling something, things were bad.

[Who cares? Maybe you missed it, Ax, but we have a volcano—a _volcano!_—right about where all of our houses should be! Let's get going. Cassie, you need to—]

[Morph, Cassie!] I urged, slipping from underneath her. I could feel her body starting to change shape.

I could see them now, with large fat bodies and four triangular fins. There long necks broke the surface, obscuring them from view. I knew what they were—or at least, I had an idea—and I wanted to be able to move.

[No way,] Tobias whispered. He recognized them, too.

[What is that, the Loch Ness monster?!] Marco cried.

[It's Visser Three in morph!] Rachel snarled. [No, wait, can't be. There are two of them.]

[No _way_!] Tobias said again.

[They're coming after us!] Cassie cried, finally all dolphin.

[As I said,] Ax boasted. [_not_ whales.]

[You guys,] I said, turning away from the approaching creatures. [SWIM!]


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Animorphs.

**Chapter Two:**

[Tobias, you realize what they are?] I asked as we swam, pushing my shark morph to its limits.

[I think so!] he gasped. [But how? I don't understand.]

We rocketed through the water, each straining to keep ahead of the pursuing creatures. Whatever they were—what Tobias and I thought they were—they were fast. Faster than we were.

If I were human, I think I'd be crying.

[They're too fast,] Jake said. [Man, they're fast! We can't outrun them. We either have to split up or fight!]

[Fight!] Rachel, of course. Sometimes her bravery was helpful. Today, I wanted to slap her. [They're just some kind of big squid or something probably. Let's get them!]

[Split up,] Tobias said. [I don't think we can beat them.]

[We haven't tried yet,] Rachel snarled.

[We can't!] I snapped. [Not even sharks can—]

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Like a freight train, something erupted from the depths. With a flash of deadly teeth, it closed its impossibly long jaws around me and one of the others.

[Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!] Tobias and I screamed together. We were trapped, held as if we were in a vice, carried up toward the surface. The monster broke the surface, tossing me and Tobias into the ear like popcorn. It swallowed Tobias in one motion, but I was left to fall through space until I slammed into the water surface.

[Help…] I groaned, fighting to stay conscious. Something was wrong. I could smell new blood in the water. My blood, seeping from my gills. [You…you guys…]

Suddenly, I was lifted into the air again as the monster's jaws closed around me again and I slipped into darkness.

I woke up screaming as I sloshed into a lake of stomach acid. It ate my skin, burning away at the tough skin of the hammerhead. I was being digested.

[Tobias!] I moaned, writhing in pain. [Where are you?]

[I'm here!] I could feel him moving beside me. [We're being digested!]

Then, someone else slid in beside us.

[Who is that?] Tobias gasped.

[It's me!] Rachel raged.

[Rachel!]

[Who did you expect? Jonah? We have to get out of this thin. Ahhhh! My skin is itching and burning.]

[Stomach acid,] Tobias explained, [It's digesting us.]

[It's not digesting _me!_] Rachel said. [I'm gonna—]

[ I can't breathe!] I gasped. There was no water in here, and I kept inhaling stomach acid. [I've got to morph.]

[I'm tearing a hole out of here,] Rachel snarled.

We both started to demorph, trapped inside of the gullet of the beast. As soon as we were both human we morphed again.

Fur sprouted on my arms and the back of my hands. My face bulged out, and my mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Still no air! I gasped for breath, but inhaled nothing. We had to do something or we would all die. But my blunt little claws wouldn't cut it. Literally.

"Lungs!" I moaned, fighting to stay conscious.

"Yes, I know," Rachel said. "I'm suffocating."

"No, stupid!' I yelled. "Not _your_ lungs!"

I couldn't see, but I could feel the mass of muscle and fur to my left. I felt it draw back a massive paw and swing it forward, dragging what I knew to be six inch claws into the insides of the creature.

"HREEEEE-UH!"

The monster screamed.

The bear beside me attacked again, twisting its claws this way and that.

SHWOOOOOSH!

The air poured in from the ruptured lung. I inhaled deeply, gulping down great breaths.

[Tobias! Breathe! There's air!] Rachel said, widening the hole.

I lunged forward, using the hyena's bear-trap jaws to bite into the flesh and rip it apart. We had to get out of here.

Water rushed in. It swept in and pulled Rachel out, then me and the crumpled mass of feathers that was Tobias. I doggy paddled as soon as I was free, glad to know that we were in shallow water.

[You guys, that sucked.] I drug myself onto the sandy shore and fell in a heap.

[Tobias, are you okay?] She picked him up as gingerly as she could with bear paws.

[Do I _look_ okay?] he said. [Busted wing. Feathers a mess. Half my tail feathers ripped out or eaten away by stomach acid. I'm a definite mess. On the other hand I'm alive.]

[Yeah,] Rachel sighed. She raised on her hind legs and looked around. [I'm smelling…I don't know what. It's like something is missing. Like the air had been scrubbed clean. I smell various trees and plants but…I don't know. Something I should be smelling, only not.]

[Car exhaust? The smell of fossil fuels burning? The faint smells of backyard pools and grease-belching fast-food restaurants? The smell of human sweat, perfume, garbage? In other words, all the smells of civilization?]

I was barely paying attention to them. I could smell what Rachel was talking about, but it was more of what I saw that was weirding me out.

[Uh, guys?] I stood up and trotted a little farther down the beach.

[Well, my wings and tail are a mess, but my eyes are still working. I can see what you can't.] Tobias said, continuing their conversation.

[You can't _see_ smells.] Rachel

[No. But I—]

[You guys!] I yelled, barking to get their attention. [Look!]

The bear and hawk followed my gaze across the river where at least a dozen large animals were grazing along the banks. They were at least thirty feet long and about twice as tall as a full grown man. They were animals with wide, duck-like bills and long tube-like crests on the back of their heads. Even the youngest kid would recognize what they were, even if they couldn't pronounce the name.

[What are those?] Rachel asked, falling onto all-fours.

[Hadrosaurs,] Tobias said.

[_Parasaurolophus_ to be exact,] I added. [They're my favorite.]

[Favorite what?] Rachel asked. I knew she couldn't see them very well; her grizzly bear eyesight was horrible. [What is a hadrosaur?]

[Hadrosaurs were a group of duck-billed dinosaurs.]

[Tobias, would you mind making just a little bit of sense? Dinosaurs?]

[Yeah. And let's see, if I remember my old dinosaur books, those long-necked things in the water were _Elasmosauruses_ and the thing that you and Kyle just chewed a hole through was probably a _Kronosaurus_.]

[Yeah . Right. Dinosaurs?]

[Yeah. Dinosaurs.]

[You guys,] I said, still watching the massive creatures forage for food. [I think we're gonna need a bigger morph.]


End file.
